Leader addresses European & American Writers & Parliamentarians
19.9.2005
The Meeting of the Brother Leader with European & American Writers, Men of Letters &Parliamentarians Affiliated with the Global Green Auditorium
The Leader:” I welcome you in Libya, and thank you for coming. I had appealed to professors in the world, and to thinkers, politicians, parliamentarians, and members of social, economic and political research centers, asking them to come to the Jamahiriya, enter the Green auditorium, learn lessons and see for themselves the applications of direct popular democracy. In fact, the appeal was heeded by members of the Russian Duma, professors from Russian Universities and thinkers whom we met.
They came to the Green Auditorium, where we had a meeting like the present meeting. Now you honor us with your presence and by responding to the appeal. For which I thank you. The fact that you have come from such remote regions indicates that you are earnest in the pursuit of knowledge and in seeking the truth.
This is required. We must seek the truth without preconceived racial, religious or other notions. It is my belief that the Green Book, which represents a guide for the struggle of peoples to achieve direct popular democracy and popular socialism the object of a preconceived racist, irrational position on the part of a number of societies which are governed by dictatorial, arbitrary governments. Such a position is, of, course, unscientific and irrational. It is due to political reasons or disputes among states, such as antagonism to Alagathafi regarding the cause of liberation and such.
Taking a hostile position on the Third Universal Theory is the policy of rulers and governments, but you breached that embargo. Here you are in Libya and in the Green Auditorium. This is the difference between a scholar and an intellectual, free of racist complexes, who comes to seek the truth and judges it subsequently, having seen it for himself and rulers who take hostile, colonialist, racist positions in total contradiction with logic, science, and impartiality.
Regrettably, it is the position of arbitrary governments to prevent people from reading the Green Book. It is our belief that the contents of the Green Book will chart the definitive road for the world towards democracy and the solution of the socio-economic problem through the establishment of the direct, popular democracy of the masses, i.e. the system of the masses, and of popular socialism. However, failure to study the Green Book will cause people to flounder, take a long road and lose a lot of time to arrive at this solution.
They will attain this solution with the Green Book or without it because it is inevitable. The mass opposition is becoming more broadly based and growing in magnitude. It used to be individual and natural but has now become a broad, mass opposition. It looks like a pyramid whose base grows wider and wider until it becomes a horizontal line.
The march of the masses towards power and the elimination of oppression and exploitation will not stop halfway, but will surely reach its destination. It cannot be static, which means continuous, ceaseless movement. This is inevitable; the picture before us shows that the base of the pyramid continues to widen until the pyramid becomes a horizontal line, and then all the masses assume power and acquire their share of wealth. The question of power and wealth is very clear before us now in the world.
The power is in the hands of the government, not the people, and the people everywhere is ruled by a government. Such hateful terms as ‘the government’ and ‘the people’, the ‘governor’ and the ‘governed’ are unashamedly taking their place; there is no shame anywhere in the world. Now there is talk of the ‘governor’ and the ‘governed’ and the one who is responsible. In other words, there is one who is responsible and one who is not, and he who is not responsible is a slave.
It is well known, even in the slavery system, that a slave is not responsible, but his master is responsible. Now, there is talk of responsible officials, but who are they? They mean the rulers. Fine, are the people responsible? They say “no”; they don’t say “You are responsible,” but they say “The ruler is responsible….the one who is a responsible official of this state…those who are responsible officials of that state.” However, the rest are not responsible, because they are slaves, and, indeed, when one is a slave, one is not responsible; the term “responsibility” is never ascribed to a slave, but to his master, and this is the reason behind the expression extant in the world today.
It is said “I met a number of Italian responsible officials….I met a number of Indian responsible officials….I met a number of responsible officials of this state….I met the first responsible official of this state…..I met a responsible official from that state …..I met a responsible official from the other state…”
These are masters who are responsible….When someone refers to a responsible official, it means he has met one of the rulers or the prime ruler, etc. However, the others are not responsible because they are citizens, i.e. slaves, hence the expressions “responsible officials” and “responsible official”.
Someone who is responsible for managing the affairs of the slaves. They are his slaves, and he is responsible for them. This is the truth we uncover when we remove the present camouflage. The truth is that the citizens are now slaves everywhere in the world, and there is someone in charge of them, who is the government. They exchange courtesies, cables, congratulations and such, and say: ‘Government and people, ruler and ruled’ which means that the people is not the government but is governed “I thank your government and people for your warm hospitality…..I thank the government and the people for hosting the conference.”
This is an abhorrent expression because it is an autocratic expression, because it is devoid of equality and robs the people of sovereignty and dignity and ascribes everything to the government and the responsible official. You can see this being practiced without shame, as the forces ensconced on the throne of authority in the world are the forces that have the resources that enable them to be defiant and to brag and insult.
It is the dictatorial theory that is prevailing in the world now and is called modern democracy or representative democracy, but it is not a democracy. It consists of politicians and businessmen who are the capitalists who own the wealth. It is this wealth that that enables them to put whoever they want in power. Therefore there is an alliance between those who have the financial power and those who have the political power, while the people are deprived of this political potential and this economic potential.
For example, they, esp. in the Western countries, speak of freedom of the press and say that the press is free. This is deception, distortion and false. This absolutely untrue, since there is no free press and the poor cannot publish a newspaper. A newspaper is published by a corporation, and the rich own the newspapers. These newspapers are founded by this class to serve its interests. Hence, they are guided, controlled, forced to pursue a certain policy and are not free.
To be free is to follow any direction and say anything, but these papers were by certain forces to serve their interests. Therefore they are servile and in the pay of their masters. It is also said that there are elections and that the people elected representatives. This is a distortion of the truth, and the people are innocent of this. It is the corporations and the rich who create the representatives, as a poor person can’t become a member of the Congress, the Parliament or the House of Lords in any state.
A poor person can’t become a member of parliament, publish a newspaper or become a ruler. These are the monopoly of the political-economic duo, the capitalists and the politicians created by the capitalists to be in their service. The politicians are ruled by the capitalists who made them; this is clear.
It is said that President So&So is supported by the oil companies, for example, which means he was made by the oil companies and became president to serve their interests. Sometimes, it is said that President So & So is against the oil companies and favors the iron and steel industry, because those companies managed to get him to the presidency to serve them.
It is then said that the oil companies are unlucky, because the winner is supported by the iron and steel companies, and sometimes the opposite is said. Any other economic activity that possesses an effective financial power can create a president, a congress, a parliament or a government biased in its favor to serve its interests. This capitalist class owns the press, which is falsely said to be free when it is not; it is the slave of the capitalist who owns it. This press generates publicity and influences public opinion in favor of one candidate or another
In actual fact, everything they say to you and to us and to the world about there being democracies and freedoms is not true. On the contrary, all societies now, esp. Western societies are dangerously dictatorial. Why? The current ruling parties are not real parties made up of citizens, of ordinary people. They are a political force that enjoys economic support and has all the means. They control the army, the police, the press and capital, and beyond that, they control the power of decision-making.
In other words, this is one of the most hideous dictatorships, which does not leave a breathing space for any kind of freedom. Peoples everywhere are discovering this truth year after year. One finds that those who go to the ballot boxes in the past years were seventy percent, for example, only to become fifty percent in the following year and later, thirty percent. Nowadays, in the elections held in some states, the turnout in certain constituencies was down to three percent, and, at most, reached, ten percent. This is a rejection of the system by the ordinary citizen, because it is an arbitrary, dictatorial, useless system…
It exploits the citizen to bestow legitimacy on the dictators, the capitalists and the exploiters Thus, this is the sole function of the citizen; he is told, “Bestow legitimacy on this dictator! All we want from you to take this paper and put it here,” so that they can acquire legitimacy, because without elections no one can claim the presidency or the premiership, since he will be asked, “Who appointed you?”
Nowadays, people do not participate in appointing the president or the prime minister, but it is necessary to claim that he was elected president. So, they address the people and ask them to stand in queues on a certain date, and place the ballot papers in designated boxes, The citizen handles this paper just as he handles a piece of toilet paper which he puts in the wastebasket or in the garbage after use. This is exactly how he puts this paper in this box, the garbage box or the ballot box.
Some go as if going to the market or for a walk on the beach. He is told, “There are elections today,” so he says, “Fine, we’ll kill an hour or two by taking a paper and putting it in the ballot box,” just as if he was going to the zoo, the beach or a café; that’s what it has come to.,. The majority now knows this and do not go. In the third world, it is well known that the citizen who votes has been paid the price.
If there are elections, it means votes are bought; “Take a dollar and put your ballot in the box.” It is, in other words, a process of buying and selling… Someone would say to himself, “Since there are elections today, I can put a paper in the ballot box and receive a dollar in return, instead of staying at home and not getting anything.” The buying of votes is well known now. Those who do not have money cannot contest the elections.
We, the owners of companies who want this president to serve our interests, cover these costs and claim that we contributed to his campaign. It is silly for the candidate himself to come and vote for himself and says, “I have nominated myself…” This is one of the farces of the theory of representation. If the people are present why should we have representatives for them?
What is the justification for removing the people deliberately and bringing those who represent them? It is said, “Where shall we bring the people, since this hall can only accommodate one hundred people?
Since the people number a hundred million, let them elect a hundred people to represent them in this hall, because this hall is too small for all the people, and can only hold a hundred people.”
Therefore the people can meet a hundred a time until all one hundred people everywhere are covered. Why settle for this hall only? Let’s build a thousand such halls, where the people can meet in congresses and decide what they want. Then the secretaries of these congresses can meet and bring with them the decisions of these congresses, in which all the people, men and women, were represented, and agree to issue these decisions taken by the people and drafted in these meetings. Sometimes, there is confusion.
At times we would be talking with someone and refer to people’s congresses and direct popular democracy, and he says, “We have parliaments just like you.” No, I want to explain the major difference between parliaments and congresses, congresses are bodies elected by the people, while congresses are made up of the people themselves. Thus, when we speak of a parliament we mean a body elected by the people, but when we speak of a Congress we mean the people, all the people. For instance, in the Jamahiry (mass) system in Libya, the people’s congresses comprise all the people, adult men,and women who are legally accountable, and they are the ones who rule.
The people’s congress is like the Congress, while in a certain country there is one Congress, there are 400 Congresses in Libya, reflecting the number of the population, and all the people are present in 400 Congresses. Imagine!! In one country there is one parliament and you come to Libya and find 400 parliaments. Why is that?
Because all the people are members of these four hundred parliaments. Hence, whatever is decided is decided by the people and not by the representatives of the people. Naturally, in the name of representation, the people were separated and slowly excluded from governance and its management, toe replaced by another means which, as already indicated, is adapted by money and such.
The danger does not, in fact, lie in the exclusion of democracy inside the country, and that the regime is dictatorial and arbitrary, etc., and that the citizen does not have self-determination, but in the fact that t his clique that rules on behalf of the people, be they representatives or government, and that were made in the manner we have already explained, does not pose a threat to itself but to the world and to world peace.
The danger is that one individual can decide to declare war or peace, to destroy the world or not to destroy it, and to invade or not to invade. The danger is that these Hitler-like governments threaten us and threaten our lives. They threaten our peace and security just as Hitler posed a threat, because he had the mightiest force at the time. He was one individual governing by himself, who began with a gang, a minister of propaganda and a minister of defense, and eventually imperiled world peace and posed a real threat.
Now there are individuals who have bombs, missiles, planes and chemical and bacteriological weapons. This is very serious, because these weapons of mass destruction are controlled by a group of individuals. People everywhere demonstrated against the war. They wanted peace, not war. However, the war broke out, the forces were moved and the children died. Where is the democracy then? Don’t the people who are against the war have representatives?
If the representatives had represented the people they would have objected to the war, but they supported the rulers, therefore they do not represent the people. Hence, representation is a fraud. It has been proven that the representative does not represent the people. The representatives do not act on behalf of the people, which have been proven. In general, they are all haunted by the crisis, the crisis of governance, democracy and the economic system.
Even when you meet many presidents, they do not tell you that they are alright. They know they are experiencing a very grave crisis. They tell you,” we do not know the tools we need. Politics is in a crisis. We do not know how to relate to the citizens or how to manage our affairs. . The economy is rejected, .politics is rejected and all the current processes are rejected by the ordinary citizen. The masses express their aspirations, their desires and their views, like the “ Seattle masses”, in isolation from their representatives and their governments.
Millions, heeding no borders, march to raise their voice, stats their views and express their rejection. The rulers are being pursues everywhere by demonstrations, while the workers are organizing strikes and demanding their rights. As for the economy ,the crisis has been exacerbated and has endangered the entire capitalist system of production, which has prompted them to seek solutions to save themselves, which is, indeed, evident , What is positive is that the company that used to be owned by one person in Europe, the U.S. or Canada has now become a public company. This, as we have already stated is an inevitable solution.
What is stated in the Green Book is inevitable. Without reading the Green Book, then with the passage of time and through struggle we will arrive at this solution. On the economic front, the major capitalist companies have begun to go public in spite of them, otherwise they would face death. The workers have begun to demand their right, which means they are preventing the owner of the company from profiting at their expense, whereas he founded that company to exploit them, reap profits and accumulate capital.
This has led automatically to a solution, as the workers themselves became shareholders in the company. If you go to the stock market, you will find the shares of this company are publicly traded, the same company that used to be owned by one individual may be now owned by a million shareholders. This means that socialism is a solution that imposes itself, and it has not failed or is dying as they say. On the contrary, it is capitalism that is dying; it is dying everyday…
Holding on to it is an exercise in futility and a waste of time. It is like keeping a person on life support systems. What is the use of clinging to the life-support systems if the patient is clinically dead? This is exactly the case of capitalism and the theory of representation. Holding on to them is like keeping someone alive on life-support systems.
Now, privately held companies are beginning to become public companies, and in the final analysis, you will find that only the popular socialism, which was addressed in the second chapter of the Green Book, will prevail. However, now they call it popular capitalism as Thatcher called it since they do not like the term “socialism”. Whether you call it popular capitalism or popular socialism does not matter. Even in Libya it is possible to speak of popular capitalism; what matters is that the people own the capital, which means socialism…
This leaves the political problem as a representation of the people is still espoused. Generally speaking, the political problem has not been solved yet, and the political crisis still persists. We have seen that the peoples and the parliaments that they claim were elected by the people are not on the same page. There is a grave crisis experienced by the world today, which is the crisis of Iraq.
It is a war of devastation and genocide and it is a threat to peace and a waste of the world resources, ad the oil is being burned every day, it is a war which the people rejected, and the parliaments endorsed. Then what is the use of convening another parliament for these peoples, and holding another election for such a parliament as long as the parliament does not represent the people? We should abolish the parliament and uphold the will of the people. But how do we allow the people to govern?
It is very clear that the people can govern through the people’s congresses and the people’s committees. Instead of having one Congress or one parliament, there will be a thousand congresses or a thousand parliaments accommodating all the people. The structures within we are working now are so obsolete that they can no longer accommodate the new realities. The peoples are marching towards power and want to govern.
The old structure of the government and the parliament is crumbling before this new reality. All the people will enter this structure, which is too narrow for a government and a parliament. So this structure will break up and should break up. Even the wealth was monopolized in a structure confined to a handful of capitalists. Now, all the peoples want their share of the wealth, and all will gain access to the structure, and therefore the old structure of individual capitalism will break up.
A single individual used to own a company and enlist the labor of a million workers to increase his profits by exploiting them and robbing their efforts. This structure will break up, because the million want their share in this company. All of these are practical, material proofs of the validity the Green Book theory, the third universal theory…
We are reassured to know that there is a solution set down in a book, the Green Book. If we study this book and if the people learned it, we will arrive quickly at a solution and spare ourselves this prolonged suffering. However, if we fail to study it, we will certainly arrive at the solution prescribed by the Green Book, but through suffering, after traveling a long road and paying a heavy price. Now the U.N. Security Council, whose meetings used to be open only to 15 members, finds itself compelled to allow states non-members to attend the debates.
The most recent recommendation was made this month at a summit meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Naturally, they did not agree to expand the Security Council with the addition of new members, and maintained its present size, but they recommended that the Security Council continue to allow the participation of the largest possible number of non-member states in its meetings, because the world will no longer allow 15 members to decide its fate, and war and peace,… They said,” This is true.
We will allow a number of non-member states to speak in every meeting… This shows that even the old structure of the Security Council is beginning to break up now, because everyone wants to gain access to this structure, and this is only the beginning. A hall like this can only accommodate on hundred, but there are a thousand people outside who want to come in. . . . Fine, we will let in ten of you, then twenty, then thirty, because we want to solve the problem of those who are outside the hall. For if they came in they would smash the premises, break the windows, and cause such confusion that we would not be able to work.
Once the one thousand come in and destroy the hall, a new hall will be built to accommodate a thousand. This is what is happening, which means that the old structures will crumble before the new challenges posed by the masses.
